{"id":57928,"date":"2024-05-03T05:59:11","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T05:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/664ce385-1fa0-45eb-b76e-ebbd2b0178ae"},"modified":"2024-05-03T07:09:41","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T07:09:41","slug":"astrophotographer-captures-comet-12p-pons-brooks-jupiter-and-uranus-during-the-april-eclipse","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/astrophotographer-captures-comet-12p-pons-brooks-jupiter-and-uranus-during-the-april-eclipse\/","title":{"rendered":"Astrophotographer captures Comet 12P\/Pons-Brooks, Jupiter and Uranus during the April eclipse"},"content":{"rendered":"

The comet and two planets captured while shooting the April 8 eclipse. <\/p>

By Iain Todd\n <\/p>

Published: Friday, 03 May 2024 at 05:59 AM<\/p>

\n\n

An astrophotographer managed to capture an image showing Comet 12P\/Pons-Brooks in the sky during the April 8 total solar eclipse, and caught Jupiter and Uranus in the frame too.<\/p>

If you’re a regular visitor to the BBC Sky at Night Magazine website, you’ll know that we spent a lot of time in early 2024 covering the Comet 12P\/Pons-Brooks<\/a> story.<\/p>

Chart predicting the location of Comet 12P\/Pons-Brooks during the total solar eclipse of April 8 2024. Credit: Pete Lawrence<\/figcaption><\/figure>

It’s perhaps been the biggest astronomy story of the of the year so far, apart from of course the April 8 total solar eclipse over North America.<\/p>

So we were particularly excited at the prospect of Comet Pons-Brooks being visible during the April 8 eclipse<\/a>.<\/p>

It felt like these two big stories were culminating in a close embrace during one of the biggest days of the year.<\/p>

Astrophotographer Stephan Hamel\u00a0was in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada photographing the solar eclipse and captured this image of Comet 12P\/Pons-Brooks – along with Jupiter and Uranus – during the event.<\/p>

\"Image
Image of Comet 12P\/Pons-Brooks with Jupiter and Uranus, captured during the April 8 2024 total solar eclipse from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, 19:20 UTC. Credit: Stephan Hamel. Equipment: Nikon D3200 camera, Samyang 135mm lens, tripod. Click to expand. Settings: ISO 400, f2.8 and a 1 second exposure.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

But, says Stephan, capturing the comet was something of a shot in the dark (albeit a well-timed and skilful shot in the dark, we say).<\/p>

“I hesitated to attempt to photograph Comet\u00a012P\/Pons-Brooks\u00a0 as I had read in a few places the odds of getting an image of the\u00a0comet were slim to none and knew things would get real busy for me during totality,” Stephan says.<\/p>

My main objective during totality was to manually operate my main DSLR camera to get as many images as possible during those short two minutes.<\/p>

“A different camera-lens setup (Nikon D3200+Samyang 135mm) was needed to go after comet 12P\/Pons-Brooks which meant more complexity\u00a0and preparation.<\/p>

“I also knew the hydrogen alpha telescope that would be running in parallel to get the partial phases would\u00a0need\u00a0centring and refocused\u00a0as soon as third contact happened.”<\/p>

But, not willing to let this put him off, Stephan committed.<\/p>

“I still decided to give the 12P\/Pons-Brooks capture a try, as it was a unique chance and Jupiter was going to provide the\u00a0perfect reference point in the sky to quickly aim the\u00a0camera.<\/p>

“My thoughts were: ‘I’ll take one image and that’s it, then I will enjoy the rest of totality’. That’s exactly what I did and it worked!<\/p>

“I guess estimated the ISO and exposure length, quickly framed the shot with Jupiter and the horizon as reference points and took the image.<\/p>

“After operating the two DSLRs, I still had time to enjoy the rest of the eclipse totality. In hindsight, I did everything I was recommended not to do for\u00a0someone’s first eclipse!”<\/p>